1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates to Graphical User Interfaces (GUI). More specifically, it relates to a GUI which provides a buddy dialog for each possible option format to facilitate editing of data values.
2. Background Art
Graphical user interfaces (GUIs), such as those provided by the Apple Macintosh, Windows.TM. and OS/2.TM. operating environments, is a display format which enables a user to choose commands, execute application programs, manage computer files, and perform other functions by selecting pictorial representations known as icons, or items from a menu through use of a pointing device such as a mouse.
Most popular GUI environments present application, system status, and other information to the user in "windows" appearing on a computer monitor screen. A window is a more or less rectangular area within a display screen in which a user views an application or a document. Such a window may be open, closed, displayed full screen, reduced to an icon, increased or reduced in size, or moved to different areas of the display. Multiple windows may be displayed simultaneously, such as: windows included within other windows, windows overlapping other windows, or windows tiled within the display area.
A windows application is a software application program that operates within a Windows operating environment. These windows applications are displayed in a similar manner within an application window and generally follow similar conventions for the arrangement of menus, style of dialog boxes, and use of the keyboard and mouse. The name of an application and any associated document, and a menu bar for the application are typically displayed at the top of the application window which contains the running application.
Within an application window, additional windows or panes may also be displayed. One such window, a dialog box, is displayed to request information from the user or to supply information to the user. In many applications, a user typically is required to edit the data values of many individual objects with different value formats. For example, some of the object values may be IP addresses, others may be time periods, and still others may be more complex such as ordered lists of IP addresses. A GUI may constructed to list the objects in some sort of list control, and the user allowed to select one for editing by, for example, clicking on an icon, tag or edit button. Upon selecting an object for viewing or editing, the user is presented with a separate dialog with the appropriate type of fields for that particular type of object. One specific kind of dialog box is referred to as a pop-up dialog, and is often or typically used to provide a user a way to edit the data values of many individual objects with different value formats.
A problem with the use of pop-up dialogs for configuring objects at a Graphical User Interface (GUI) is that the separate dialog clutters the screen and may hide some valuable related information on the dialogs behind it. Also, popping up a separate dialog to edit each object may be distracting to the user. Furthermore, it is even more annoying to the user if it is only desired to view the value of some object, and this editing method is the only way to view the values. A specific example of the problem with using pop-up dialogs for configuring objects is the configuring of options of the global, subnet, class, and client objects in a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server. There are up to 255 different option objects for each global, subnet, class, and client object and there are, for this example, at least ten different data formats used to represent the data values of the option objects.
For example, when a user modifies the properties of a subnet, one of the property pages displayed contains a list of the options that are currently associated with the subnet. As the user selects an option from the list, the option data values need to be presented. The user should also have the capability to modify these values. Since there are potentially many options, popping up a dialog for each one is not a good solution.
It is an object of the invention to provide an improved graphical user interface for enabling a user to configure objects.
It is a further object of the invention to provide user-interface developers, such as server configuration tool developers, the capability to provide users with an improved GUI enabling a user to view and edit values of objects with different value formats.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an improved GUI which enables object configuration without relying solely on the use of pop-up dialogs.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an object configuration GUI in which no extra dialogs appear to distract the user, hide information, and possibly require user interaction to close.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an improved GUI which allows a user to quickly view current settings of a collection of objects with different formats.